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Tim Winton wins 2009 Miles Franklin Award

Tim Winton has won the 2009 Miles Franklin Award for his novel Breath.

Four times a winner of the nation's most prestigious prize and the only writer ever to have won four times in his own right, Winton was on his beloved Ningaloo Reef in the north of WA when the announcement was made in Sydney tonight.

It is almost 25 years since Winton won his first Miles Franklin for Shallows. His novels Cloudstreet and Dirt Music were also winners. Breath, the story of a middle-aged paramedic remembering his daredevil youth as a big-wave surfer, was a commercial and critical sensation when published by Penguin Australia in May last year. The number one bestseller sold 130,000 copies in hardback in Australia alone and has gone on to sell strongly in paperback. It has been published to great acclaim in the UK, the USA, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Brazil.

"The Miles Franklin award has tried to do its part over time to stiffen the resolve and bolster the confidence of Australian writers," said the author, "and by honouring local stories and voices it's contributed to the success our literary culture has enjoyed in recent years. But in 2009, as we face the prospect of losing territorial copyright, it's worth reflecting on the value we put on Australian voices. Australian rights are fundamental to the maintenance of our culture, and without them we'll revert to being the nation of cringers and whingers we once were when we only valued the stories and accents of our 'betters' in another hemisphere. I'd like to think that tonight is about more than one book or only one Australian writer; it's a chance to consider how far we've come and what we now stand to lose."

Jun 2009